Making Memories
by Myrrthee
Summary: Castle and Beckett are happily married, for three years now. They have a one-year-old daughter, who got hurt in daycare. Beckett feels guilty for not being there for here, and makes some decisions.
1. The Accident

**Summary** : Castle and Beckett are happily married, for three years now. They have a one-year-old daughter, who got hurt in daycare. Beckett feels guilty for not being there for here, and makes some decisions.

 **A/N: I hope you'll enjoy this fic, and please leave a review since I'm new at this and I'd like to know what you think. English is not my native language, so I'm sorry for any grammatical mistakes or typos.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle :)

It was just another day at the precinct, until she got a particular phone call. "Mrs. Castle?", she heard the woman on the other end of the line say. "Yes, that's me.. who's this?" she asked. Her heart began beating faster, fearing the worst. "Hi, I'm Jenny, a substitute daycare assistant at your daughter's daycare. I'm sorry to say Lauren has been in an accident today, and is now on her way to the hospital. I called you as soon as possible."

Tears formed in her eyes. Kate dropped everything she was holding, including her phone. Her baby girl, in the hospital. Accident. Hospital. Baby girl. These were the only things that kept running through her mind. Rick! She needed to call Rick! Later though, now she needed to go see her baby. She grabbed her coat and ran off towards the elevator, when she realized her phone was still on the ground. She ran back towards her desk, and grabbed her phone. Damn, it had a nasty crack in it. _FOCUS KATE!,_ she thought to herself. "Jenny, are you still there?", she said hastily. "Yes, I'm still here, I already figured you dropped your phone since I heard a loud thump.", she said while chuckling.

"Which hospital did they bring Lauren to?" Kate asked, already back on her way to her car. "Bellevue Hospital, I'm also on my way there right now, I'll explain everything once I meet you there!" "Kay, thanks, have to go now, bye!" Kate said before hanging up.

Once she stepped in the car, she immediately hit #1 on her phone, speed-dialling Rick. Luckily the 12th was not that far away from the Bellevue. The phone rang three times before he finally picked up. "Hey Kate, I'm in a meeting right now, what's up?"

"Rick..", she sighed. He was completely shocked. It sounded like she was crying, which she didn't do often. It was eerily quiet on her end of the line, and he didn't like one bit of it. "Kate, what happened?", he asked in a demanding tone. She tried to suppress a sob before replying "Lauren, Bellevue, accident at school."

He felt like his world had just stopped. "Kate, I'm on my way okay? I can be there in 10 minutes, hang in there, she's gonna be ok!", he said before hanging up. He walked back into the conference room, and excused himself, explaining why he had to leave.

Once Rick left the building, he hailed a cab. He offered the driver an extra $50 to drive faster. He needed to see Kate and his baby. When he arrived at the hospital, he already saw Kate walking towards the entrance, so he threw a $100 bill at the driver, and said "Keep the change, thanks for hurrying!" "Thank you sir, have a nice day!" the cabbie responded, but Rick was already too far away to hear it. He tried to catch up with Kate, calling her name. She turned around, and when she saw him she ran straight at him. First thing he did was to wrap her up in a hug, like their lives depended on it.

"What happened?" he asked her. "I don't know, she had an accident at the kindergarten, and the substitute teacher called me, said she was also on her way here. She'd explain it all once we got here, she told me." Kate told him. They walked towards the front desk together, trying to keep calm. "Hi, I'm looking for Lauren Castle, one-year-old, she was just brought in here." Kate told the lady behind the desk. "Yes, are you related to her? We can only allow immediate family to know her room number. "Yes, we're related! We're her parents!", Castle snapped at the lady. "Rick, calm down, it's her job to ask us that!" Kate smiled apologetically at the lady.

"Okay, room number is 583, fifth floor, when you get out of the elevator turn left, enter the first hallway on your right, and you should walk right into the nurses' station of the Children's department. They'll give you further information", the lady said. "Okay, thanks!", Kate said to her.

They walked to the elevator hand-in-hand, needing that kind of contact now. It was really comforting at moments like these. They left the elevator at the fifth floor, neither of them had said a word, both afraid of what was waiting for them behind the doors of the hallway they were about to enter. "Ready?" Rick asked her just as he was about to open the door. "No. But I want to see my baby.", she answered with a poker face.

They entered the hallway and walked for a bit, never having let go of each other's hands. Finally, after what seemed like miles (but was only like 75 meters) they arrived at the nurses' station. "Hi, we're the parents of Lauren Castle, she was brought in here earlier today and the lady at the front desk directed us to you", Kate said with a smile.

"Yes, there was this woman earlier, but she left just a minute ago, said she was needed back at the daycare centre. She asked me to explain it all to you. Why don't you follow me, take a seat?", the nurse asked. "With all due respect ma'am, but I'd rather see my baby girl as soon as possible." Kate told her. "Very well, follow me then", the nurse told her with a smile. Kate could see the sympathy on her face.

When they got to the room she was in, Kate broke down. Her little girl was lying there, right wrist in a cast, left leg in a cast and right ankle in a cast. Rick took her in his arms once more, whispered soothing words into her ear. He wanted to cry as well, but he had to be strong now. For Kate and for his baby girl.

"How did it happen?", Rick asked the nurse. "Well, they were about to go outside to take a breath with 4 other kids, and she tried to go down the stairs herself. She was still all the way at the top, when one of the older kids accidentally walked into her, so she fell down the stairs. She's got a fractured leg, she broke two of her carpal bones and she also has a fractured ankle." Kate knew the teachers always carried the kids down the stairs, since she knew half of the kids were not able to walk by themselves yet. She only cried harder when she heard this and Castle held her tighter.

"Will she be able to make a full recovery or is this going to be of influence for the development and growth of these bones she injured?" Rick asked the nurse. "She'll be able to make a full recovery, since bone fractures heal a lot faster if a kid gets one." They were both really relieved by the news and let out a huge sigh simultaneously. Kate wiped her tears away, embarrassed by her sudden breakdown.

Still, their baby girl was lying there in a hospital bed, with casts almost bigger than her small body. It brought tears to Kate's eyes again. "When can we take her home?", she asked the nurse. "Well, you can take her home right now if you want to, I'll give you some painkillers, she can take those 4 times a day, has to be at least 3 hours in-between every time she takes them. You cannot let her use them for longer than 3 weeks, even if she keeps crying and keeps having pain. I'd like to make an appointment with you to give her new pain meds and just to check how she is doing. If she's doing well enough at that point, we'll make another appointment to have one, two, or all of the casts removed, ok? By the way, since she is still really young, we decided to give her the waterproof casts, so it can get wet without you worrying about it. Do you have any further questions?", the nurse asked

"No, no questions. Everything sounds perfect to me", Kate said with a smile on her face.

They made an appointment, picked up their sleeping daughter and a special wheelchair for kids, and were soon on their way home. Since she had multiple bone fractures, Kate had to be really careful where she grabbed her daughter to get her in her car seat. When she lifted her out of the wheelchair, the girl began whimpering. Kate quickly and gently put her in the car seat, and decided to sit in the back with her, just in case.

Once they were home, she called captain Gates, explaining her sudden absence and asking for the next two days off. After that, Castle would take a month off to take care of Lauren while she was at the precinct.

She picked up her daughter and walked to their bedroom, laying her in her crib they had set up there for her, just in case she couldn't sleep while alone in her room of if she was waking up every 30 minutes, just to make it easier for her and Castle to be there for her. She was already asleep again as soon as Kate lay her down and tucked her in.

"Rick, it was supposed to be my day off today.", she said when returned to the living room. "If I had just told Gates I really couldn't come, this would've never happened, it's all my fault. What kind of mother am I?", she told him. "Kate, that's bullshit, and you know it! None of this is your fault, Gates needed you at the precinct today. You couldn't have known this was going to happen, so don't you dare blame yourself for this. You're the best mom our little girl could've wished for.", he said, tears in his eyes.

"Come here", he said while he took her hand and led her to the couch. He sat down and spread his legs, motioning for her to come sit in-between them. She did, and rested her head on his shoulder. They fell asleep like that, exhausted from the day they had and the news they had to process. It was all going to be ok though, she just knew it.

 **A/N: This story isn't over yet. I'm open to suggestions of where to take it. Even though I already have a main plot, I'm not that creative so you're welcome to leave a review of what you think should happen next. I'm really new to writing fanfics, so I hope you'll leave a review telling me what you think! Lots of love and thanks for reading this first chapter :)**


	2. Priorities

**A/N: I'd like to start with this notice first, I got quite some negative reviews on my first chapter, all of them were about a one-year-old not being old enough to go to kindergarten. I'd like to apologize for that I changed it and re-uploaded the last chapter, so that issue is no longer there :) the thing is, I'm not from the States and where I live (somewhere in Europe), kids DO go to kindergarten by age one. I'm sorry though, I should've done research about how the system works in NY instead of just assuming it was the same.**

 **Also, I had some issues uploading this chapter, and the font got all messed up. I actually didn't notice until slider23 told me, so thanks! I hope the problem is fixed now! :D**

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle

Previously:

 _"Rick, it was supposed to be my day off today.", she said when returned to the living room. "If I had just told Gates I really couldn't come, this would've never happened, it's all my fault. What kind of mother am I?", she told him. "Kate, that's bullshit, and you know it! None of this is your fault, Gates needed you at the precinct today. You couldn't have known this was going to happen, so don't you dare blame yourself for this. You're the best mom our little girl could've wished for.", he said, tears in his eyes_

 _"Come here", he said while he took her hand and led her to the couch. He sat down and spread his legs, motioning for her to come sit in-between them. She did, and rested her head on his shoulder. They fell asleep like that, exhausted from the day they had and the news they had to process. It was all going to be ok though, she just knew it_

* * *

She got a call while at the precinct. She looked at her phone, checking who was calling her. When she saw it was Rick, she smiled. _Perfect_ , she thought, she was stuck during a tough case and could use one of his outrageous theories. "Hey babe, what's up?" she said when she picked up the phone. "Kate, where the hell are you?", he answered. He didn't sound happy. At all. "Uh, I'm at the precinct, why?", she said, clearly not knowing what the anger in his voice was for. "Kate what the hell?! You promised! You promised to be there tonight!", Rick yelled into the phone.

"That's when it hit her. Her daughter was about to have her first figure skating competition tonight. And she forgot. What kind of mother is she? She spends more time working than being with her daughter. Her thoughts were interrupted by Rick speaking into the phone. "Kate, you know what. This can't go on. You missed her first steps, her first words, her first day of school, and now this?! I'm sick of you being at work all the time instead of being at home where you belong. I just can't do this anymore. Do you know how much pain it causes me to have to explain to Lauren time and time again why mommy isn't there? The pain in her eyes Kate, it's heart-breaking. I hope you're happy now, I'm done with you", he said before he hung up.

* * *

Kate woke up, gasping. She didn't know if that just really happened. Was it just a dream, or was it a picture as to what her future will look like? It sure as hell terrified her. Well, she lay in Rick's arms she noticed, so it couldn't have happened already. She stood up, accidentally waking Rick in the progress. She walked to the kitchen to grab some water, when she heard Rick speak up.

"Hey, dream bad?" he asked her. "Yeah, that's one way to put it..", she answered on a sigh. "How so?" "Let's just say I was the worst mom ever. I AM the worst mom ever. Oh God how could I just see this now?" she said in a sad tone. "Kate what do you mean?" he said. "Rick can't you see it? I'm always at the precinct, while I should actually be at home with my perfect husband and my beautiful baby girl. I'm done putting you guys in the second place. I'm going to resign."

"What?! No you're not! Kate you're overreacting right now. You think resigning is going to solve your problem, but it isn't. Being a cop isn't just what you do, it's who you are. You can't give that up. Maybe you should think about it for a bit, maybe take some time off of work, but you can't resign. You'll regret it forever", he told her.

She was about to say something, when they heard screams from their bedroom. Kate immediately ran into their bedroom, guessing the pain meds had probably worn off. Rick followed her, in case he was needed. Kate picked Lauren up out of the crib, and sat her on the big bed. Kate climbed up against the headboard and slid down her top. "Rick, can you go get the meds the nurse gave us while I feed her?"

Kate had never been so careful picking Lauren up and feeding her in her life. She was scared to death something would happen. She grabbed her nursing pillow from the bed and lay it down on her lap, laying Lauren down on top of the pillow. Once she was settled, she brought Lauren's head up to her chest and the baby began suckling.

It took her longer than usual, probably because of the pain she was in or the limited moving space she had due to the casts. After she'd been fed, they gave her the meds and she fell asleep in Kate's arms. Not wanting to let go of her baby, Kate stayed that way, sitting there with her girl in her arms. Rick joined her on the bed, watching their little miracle together.

After 30 minutes of just sitting there, neither saying a word, Kate felt her arms becoming tired and she lay Lauren down in the crib again. She grabbed her husband's hand and walked them out of the bedroom. She picked up her phone that was still in her work-bag, and called the captain, explaining the new situation and asking for six weeks off. The captain agreed, since Kate had A LOT of vacation days coming up.

She hung up the phone wrapped her arms around Rick and leaned in. Rick automatically lay his chin on top of her head, in the way she likes. It makes her feel safe. "Rick..?" she spoke softly. "I'm here", he said. "From now on, I'm going to be there for you two okay? We're gonna be ok. I'll drop by the precinct tomorrow to tell Espo and Ryan what's going, and after that, no more precinct for the next six weeks.

"I love you, Kate" he simply stated.

"I love you too babe, so so much" she answered him.

 **A/N: I hope you liked the second chapter. It's a short one, but I felt like it was the right time to close of the chapter where I did. As I already told you last time, this story isn't over yet, however, I'll try to write it in a way, that if I ever lose inspiration or motivation it can properly end where I ended it :) Please review and tell me what you think! You can also tell me suggestions of where you'd like to see this going, because I read all of the reviews and messages I get, and chances are big that the tips and suggestions you give me will be seen in the story. Thanks for reading!^^**


	3. AN

A/N:

Hi guys, I'm sorry, this is not a new chapter. I feel so guilty for uploading and then leaving for 3 weeks, but I just had my exams and I still have a lot of work to do for my oral exams for German, French, Dutch, English and economics so I'm afraid I won't upload for at least another week or 2. The thing is (I'm sure some people can relate to this) I'm a very lazy person and I like to spend my free time in my bed reading fanfics or checking all of my social media accounts. When I'm studying however, I look for a way out because I HATE HATE HATE studying and most of the times I'm like: hmmm let's run 5 miles. And I actually do it just to avoid studying. And I hate running. I'm the worst person ever xD. This time I decided to write this story... That being said, I'm SO SO genuinely sorry but school is my priority which I'm only starting to realize just now. I hope you all understand. I'm not abandoning this story just yet!

~Lots of love x~


	4. the end

hi people. I'm sorry for my absence over the last half year. I had a lot of issues at home and at school, as well as the issue that I did not own a laptop until last friday. But hey, I GRADUATEEEEEDDDD! :DDD I just realized that this story is utter crap and I am going to try to write like an unrelated one shot fic, and I'd like you all to leave prompts because that's the way I'm going to be writing it; you guys prompt and if I can, I will write it. So please, leave a prompt in the reviews or in a private message, rating doesn't really matter K-M I'm fiine with all of them :) I'm at summer school of my new school (uni - law school) but next week I have 1 month all to myself (and work ugh) So hopefully I'll get some writing done, PLEASE REMEMBER TO LEAVE A PRROMPT. Love, Myrr 


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